#oesophagtis

More food for thought

I hinted in my last post that I had seen my gastric consultant and there was much to think about. To recap, I had a tumour removed from my stomach in 2016 and it has caused me various problems ever since. The tumour shown in red above was removed but left the top of my stomach a thin pointed shape which now pokes through my diaphragm up into the oesophagus (foodpipe) and releases acid into my throat. This is called a hiatus hernia. The second problem is that on the stomach wall, where the tumour was, runs a nerve which tells the pyloric sphincter at the bottom of the stomach to open. In removing the tumour, that nerve was damaged and now the pyloric sphincter doesn't open easily to let the food out into the duodenum and on to the intestines. So again, food and acid builds up in my stomach. The medical term is "delayed gastric emptying"  (DGE). When I have had to fast for a gastroscopy procedure, I have fasted for at least 18 hours and they have still found food in my stomach when